You may sense the power of pay per click marketing, … you may have a sense of learning something grand, … you may realize that if you’ll only stick with it and continue practicing there will come a point where profits come more effortlessly, … indeed, where successful marketing copy flies from your fingers like music flows from Tchaikovsky, Miles Davis, or Geddy Lee.

Why is it we don’t give ourselves the lattitude and respect these greats gave themselves in years of practice to perfect their crafts?

Why is it we don’t forgive ourselves our early mistakes, and expect it will take the same level of dedication which we’ve seen time and again are required across every other arena of life to achieve something truly excellent?

Could it be because it’s so profitable for marketing educators to tell us how easy it is? To perpetuate the illusion you can extract value without giving value, that one can casually dip into the internet marketing pool and pull out an electronic fortune without ever talking to a customer?

Everything worthwhile takes practice.

Every journey worth taking has obstacles.

Every person worth knowing has struggled.

Every mountain worth climbing is an adventure frought with BOTH pain and excitement, sorrow and joy.

And every “next level” you strive for in your ppc marketing / internet marketing career … whether it’s your first dollar, your first million, or your first $10M will present the same.

Most of you know what I’ve been through to get where I am. (Lost $2M in a giant blunder, recovered from near bankruptcy, a very serious car accident, Lyme Disease, and chronic migraines for almost a decade before emerging victorious, 100% healthy, and debt free)

What you don’t know is what I go through to get where I’m going (building a fast growing full service online agency with 15 employees at last count, constantly adjusting and correcting course, managing over 15,000 past customers and even more people on my prospect lists, continually putting out content, dealing with all the interpersonal conflicts, time management, constant changes on the internet, technological challenges, joint ventures, conflicting financial interests, the continual necessity to take care of my own nutrition, sleep, and exercise, planning my marketing calendar, responding to unexpected opportunities, putting out fires, avoiding distraction, etc).

Why do I do it? I mean, I could easily get a cozy little job as a professor in some college town, work a few years for tenure (I’m good at publishing academic stuff), and live a relatively stress free life. I don’t have children, I don’t really spend much money to speak of on material things (have a modestly nice house and I drive a 3 year old Honda Oddysey which is totally dominated by my dogs and hiking clothes) … there aren’t any college bills to pay, and my wife loves generating her own income.

So I don’t HAVE TO do this.

But I love it. THIS is the mountain I want to climb. It’s MY mountain.

By and large I DO do exactly what I want to do, when I want to do it. No one tells me what to talk about, who to serve, or where to be. The money is good, but the life is better.

I’m completely in charge and surrounded by people I love.

Now, here’s something in your way which you probably don’t realize is in your way …

And his name is Sigmund Freud.

While Freud was definitely a man with something to say, entirely too much was made of the Oedipus conflict, and because he was influential in American and European culture, it distracted us from what’s really important in life, and made possible a kind of perverted notion which marketers profit off of called “the internet lifestyle”.

I’m not saying Freud was wrong …OK, there was this dude who wound up sleeping with his mother, killing his father, and he couldn’t live with himself. Incestual strivings create problems … I get it. (Before anyone accuses me of denial, let me just say my Mom is TOTALLY HOT ).

But there’s a MUCH BETTER STORY we can look to for a model of the good life … it’s the story of ODYSSEUS … dude lived a life full of adventure, and in his old age he was surrounded by friends and loved ones who could gather round and share common stories of vitality and purpose.

That’s where I’m going.

I hope you’ll join me.

Because the naked truth is, every step of the way there will definitely be new skills to learn, new challenges to overcome, and new pains to struggle with.

I’ll be brave enough to forgive myself for the inevitable mistakes I’ll make, and I’ll have the fortitude to keep practicing every step of the way.

]]>http://payperclicksearchmarketing.com/seo-for-ppc-teleconference-mp3/feed/3Here’s the FREE SEO for PPC Teleconference MP3 for you. The actual teleconference questions we received and answered are posted on the Rocket Clicks Blog. If you’d like to learn more about Do It Yourself SEO the Rocket Clicks way, please click here.Here’s the FREE SEO for PPC Teleconference MP3 for you. The actual teleconference questions we received and answered are posted on the Rocket Clicks Blog. If you’d like to learn more about Do It Yourself SEO the Rocket Clicks way, please click here. If you’d like an SEO Success Blueprint for your business, please click […]Pay Per Click – GlennLivingston.comPPC Emotional Marketing Secrethttp://payperclicksearchmarketing.com/ppc-emotional-marketing-secret/
http://payperclicksearchmarketing.com/ppc-emotional-marketing-secret/#commentsFri, 20 Mar 2009 19:38:22 +0000http://www.payperclicksearchmarketing.com/?p=235OK! Here’s the answer to the emotional ppc marketing puzzle I posed in yesterday’s post “emotional marketing wife loses mind” …

In yesterday’s post I told you there was a less than obvious marketing lesson for PPC marketers, and I asked people to guess what it might be. (If you go read the questions and look at the picture, you’ll understand this post better)

The title of the post (and the subject line of the email I sent to drive traffic there) was “Emotional Marketing Wife Loses Mind”. By the way because of that title I almost had to title TODAY’s POST “Emotional Marketing Wife Files For Divorce”:

Anyway, there were MANY MANY MANY good answers to the question posted on the blog.

But the lesson I wanted you to take away most was PEOPLE WILL TAKE ACTIONS YOU DESIRE IF THEY BELIEVE YOU WILL CHANGE THEIR EMOTIONAL STATE.

You see, there are only really 4 emotions … Mad, Sad, Scared, and Glad. (Everything else is a “shade of grey” built on one or more of these … for example “Elation” is an extreme form of Glad, whereas “Disgusted” is a combination of Sad and Mad)

But the world, for the most part walks around feeling one of the first 3 … Mad, Sad, or Scared.

Anytime your prospect does anything you want them to do … ANYTHING which moves them even an inch along the path from your PPC Ad Impression towards taking money out of their wallet and giving money to you, it’s because they believe this action will move them from Mad, Sad, or Scared –> Glad.

The very specific example was in the behavior you took in response to my email and post yesterday (especially those of you came from the email and left comments).

Knowing that propects will take desired actions in response to a promised change in emotional state, I’m always alert for pictures, stories, events, and other happenings in my life which CHANGE MY OWN EMOTIONAL STATE FOR THE BETTER (move me from Mad/Sad/Scared –> Glad).

Then I ask myself … what’s the most important thing I want my market to do now?

Yesterday, when I got the picture from Sharon, I literally almost peed my pants. I smiled from ear to ear. I glowed inside with love for my wife … I was having a VERY hard day, and it really cheered me up.

I asked myself “What’s the most important thing I want my market to do now?”

Turns out I needed COMMENTS ON MY BLOG.(This blog is fairly new and I’m pushing the SEO rankings up slowly … it’s a new endeavor for me, and I’m learning that comments on the blog are particularly important. By the way … PayPerClickSearchMarketing.com was #1 for “Emotional Marketing Wife” yesterday … not that this is any big accomplishment!)

I came up with an email subject “headline” which encapsulated the picture the best I could … then built the path straight into the picture, and kept the train going to create the comments.

At last count, there were over 50+ comments on that single post. I’ll bet it reaches 100 by the end of the weekend … which be DOUBLE what it was beforehand.

Now … the subject line could have just as well been a PPC ad … and many of you commenters demonstrated the ability to put the ad into Adwords format. And your landing page could have used the picture.

The key is to LINK people into your desired action once you’ve got their emotional state changed.

And although it works in Adwords itself, it’s PARTICULARLY POWERFUL with an opt in email list because you already have a relationship with your subscribers. Relationships = emotional power.

Here’s another example I’ve used in my Rabbit List (note: VERY OLD example web page formatting … but it still works like gangbusters). It goes something like this:

——————

Subject: my psychotic puppy dog

I can’t believe it. My dog has finally gone absolutely insane and stolen the discount coupon
codes for my shopping cart, and now he’s just laughing at me like a deranged lunatic. Here, have a look:

Now here’s the thing. He’s not going to give them back to me unless I feed him steak all weekend, and even then, not until Monday.

But my torture is your gain. I guess my Rabbit Secrets package is all yours now for X% off if you want to get it on this link before Monday morning.

Crazy dog … he’s really done it this time!

————————–

See what I mean? People get the email while they’re sitting on their computers, all frustrated with work during the day, etc. Then I genuinely make them smile, and they’re grateful for it … I’ve PROVEN TO THEM I CAN TAKE THEM FROM MAD/SAD/SCARED –> GLAD …

Once I’ve done that EVERY OTHER BENEFIT I OFFER THEM IS MORE BELIEVABLE.

Let me make this perfectly clear.

Every purchase is an emotional purchase IF you understand that an emotional benefit is only the cognitive “word label” we give to the experience of moving from mad/sad/scared –> glad … AND this movement accompanies the anticipated satisfaction of ALL human needs. (Every purchase is made to satisfy some human need … every last one)

]]>http://payperclicksearchmarketing.com/pay-per-click-testimonials-favor/feed/12PPC Research – Correctionhttp://payperclicksearchmarketing.com/ppc-research-correction/
Tue, 17 Mar 2009 23:47:47 +0000http://www.payperclicksearchmarketing.com/?p=226In the previous post on PPC cost estimation I made a mistake. Since twice as many people are likely to opt in as are likely to take the long survey (7 to 10 questions), I typically DIVIDE the cost per survey by two, not multiply it by two.

Thanks to everyone who pointed this out!

]]>Pay Per Click Market Researchhttp://payperclicksearchmarketing.com/pay-per-click-market-research/
http://payperclicksearchmarketing.com/pay-per-click-market-research/#commentsSat, 14 Mar 2009 02:04:24 +0000http://www.payperclicksearchmarketing.com/?p=223What can pay per click market research do for you?

Ppc research can identify upside potential (and downside risk) so you can decide whether it’s worth going forward. It can also capture consumer language (which you can echo back to improve sales conversions), and identify segments and sub segments and niches within your market who you can laser target to multiply your results.

But even more importantly, ppc market research TEST the responsiveness of the market BEFORE you develop a product, or spend a fortune in money and time:

Is there really a need in the market for your product or service?

Where are the market gaps?

What might it cost you per lead and per sale to enter the market?

ESTIMATING COST PER LEAD AND COST PER SALE WITH SURVEYS BEFORE YOU SPEND ANY MONEY ON A PRODUCT OR ON MARKETING:

When you run traffic directly from pay per click to a survey in preparation for developing a newsletter capture page:

You’ll often find that approximately twice as many people (on a percentage basis) will sign up for the newsletter as were willing to take the survey

Since you’re paying PER CLICK, you already know your COST PER SURVEY

You can then ESTIMATE YOUR COST PER LEAD by simply multiplying by two (note: legally, I can’t guarantee this cost for you, I can only report my experience)

On average, if I plan to sell something similar to what my competitors are selling on the front end, I find approximately 1 out of 10 newsletter subscribers will purchase

So I can multiply my cost per lead x 10 to get an ESTIMATED COST PER SALE (note: legally, I can’t guarantee this cost for you, I can only report my experience)

This model is especially powerful when you track survey response on a keyword by keyword basis because you wind up with a BUYING HEAT MAP of the whole vocabulary of your market

Determine if there is viable pathway into the market on a keyword by keyword basis

Pause or kill any keywords which look “red” and only roll into the market on the “in the black” estimates

There’s much more info on the free ppc research mp3 – how to use surveys to identify true point of difference benefits so you’ll stand out from the competition, etc

]]>http://payperclicksearchmarketing.com/pay-per-click-market-research/feed/2PPC Volume and Cost Estimation for New Marketshttp://payperclicksearchmarketing.com/ppc-volume-estimation-for-new-markets/
http://payperclicksearchmarketing.com/ppc-volume-estimation-for-new-markets/#commentsWed, 11 Mar 2009 17:01:52 +0000http://www.payperclicksearchmarketing.com/?p=216I get a lot of questions regarding updates to the Volume Estimation techniques in my method for comparing and choosing new markets. Here’s a walk through of the EXACT and most up to date method I use for doing this!

For beginners, I recommend choosing markets where the calculation shown in the video is between 30,000 and 600,000. PPC markets underneath this volume may not be worth the effort, and those above this volume may be too brutally competitive for a newbie to make their first dollar online!

Last, these pay per click search marketing techniques are ONLY intended for use in the How To Choose Your Market method, … I use other formulas and methods for other purposes. (If you own another product of mine and are estimating volume for other reasons, please follow the formulas therein).

]]>http://payperclicksearchmarketing.com/ppc-volume-estimation-for-new-markets/feed/12Emotional Adwords Marketing – Commenthttp://payperclicksearchmarketing.com/emotional-adwords-marketing-comment/
http://payperclicksearchmarketing.com/emotional-adwords-marketing-comment/#commentsMon, 09 Mar 2009 15:20:21 +0000http://www.payperclicksearchmarketing.com/?p=210Sarah left an interesting comment about our list of 37 Emotional Benefits , and one which is almost always mentioned in one form or another when we consult with large companies about their branding … essentially “I don’t see _____ emotion on the list”.

Here’s how the list was developed.

We started with hundreds of our own consumer studies and in-depth emotional interview transcripts to find any reference to emotional states related to purchase.

In total, we had over 600 possible emotions to start with.

We then presented these to an expert panel of 16 psychologists and marketing executives, who were instructed to eliminate redundancies and group the emotions into similar piles. They were able to reduce the list to a little under 100.

We then designed a study to reduce this list even further to a more manageable number. Our goal was to have the shortest list of human emotions which could motivate purchase … so that marketers could use them in advertising research, and agencies/copywriters could use them in actually developing their messaging.

In the study, we presented over 1,000 consumers FACIAL PICTURES of two dozen different people with a variety of different facial expressions, clothing, … and of different demographic constitution (age, ethnicity, etc)

We asked them ONE question …

“How important might it be to THIS person (picture shown) to feel THIS (emotion exposed) in their life?” (To avoid fatigue, not every consumer rated all the emotions, nor saw every facial picture)

A kind of sophisitcated mathematical analysis (“factor analysis”) showed fairly decisively that the list could be clustered into no more than 37 emotions, which are represented in the 37 Emotional Benefits chart. (There’s actually an even smaller, more workable list of 21 if you’re willing to sacrifice a certain degree of statistical accuracy)

Every time we work with a client, they see one of the other 563 emotions we started with which would be more relevant to their work. But this study showed that what they’re really seeing is just a nuance of one of the emotions in the “magic 37”. (A lot of clients used to make us prove it to them by testing and then running regressions to show the mathematical relationship … trust me, it always works and it’s not worth the effort!)

]]>http://payperclicksearchmarketing.com/emotional-adwords-marketing-comment/feed/1Adwords Marketing Success – The Naked Truthhttp://payperclicksearchmarketing.com/adwords-marketing-success-the-naked-truth/
http://payperclicksearchmarketing.com/adwords-marketing-success-the-naked-truth/#commentsMon, 02 Mar 2009 20:05:43 +0000http://www.payperclicksearchmarketing.com/?p=196Listen, we’re all chasing the same dream … “escape the dollars for hours trap by moving some electrons around the internet using auto-piloted systems while our bankers scratch their butts and look at us curiously wondering how it all works”

Am I right?

Now there are a lot of people out there telling you it’s easy. In fact, some are telling you it’s VERY easy.

Which leads a lot of people to have broken hearts, shattered dreams, and to dig very large holes for themselves

And worse yet, it prevents people from following through with focus and determination … which in my estimation is the ONLY way to conquer a market (even WITH my particular skills, background, and research protocols)

Let me ask you this … HOW COULD IT POSSIBLY BE EASY?

According to the latest stats I’ve seen, 88% of searchers NEVER go beyond page one of the search results, and the vast, vast majority of those click on one of the first five links (both paid and organic).

Which means there’s room for only about 10 players in any given market. Which means you’ve got to figure out how to be amongst the TOP TEN VENDORS IN THE WORLD for your market to get ANY significant traction.

So let me ask you, is there ANY other endeavor where people would so easily believe it is EASY to become one of the top ten in the world?

When you put it like that, all the internet hype kind of melts away, doesn’t it!

Now, before I leave you too depressed, the counter-claim to all this is that there are tens of thousands of markets … and the vast majority of marketers have NO idea how to …

Which is WHY I say it IS entirely possible, but it takes SERIOUS focus and determination, usually over a period of at least 4 to 6 months for a new market, and sometimes more than a year if it’s very competitive.

POSSIBLE … 100% DOABLE … but NOT 100% DEFINITE or EASY.

My intention was to paint a picture of reality for you in hopes you’d be able to be kinder to yourself when assessing exactly how far you’ve come, what you know, what you don’t, and what lies ahead.